Cushion heel construction



A. A. ESTERSON CUSHION HEEL CONSTRUCTION Filed Feb. 17, 1959 INVENTOR ATTORNEYS CUSHION HEEL CONSTRUCTION Albert A. Esterson, Baltimore, Md., assignor to Cats Paw Rubber Company, Inc., Baltimore, Md., a corporation of Maryland Filed Feb. 17, 1959, Ser. No. 793,766

1 Claim. (Cl. 3635) This invention relates to heels for application to shoes or boots and, more particularly, to cushion heels of the rubber type.

The principal object of this invention is to provide a cushion heel in which the cushioning effect is increased without increasing the tendency of the heel to wear.

A further object of the invention is to provide a heel having an air well across which are arranged a plurality of spaced resilient ribs to form a series of air damping chambers.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a heel with a well having resilient ribs which extend thereacross at an angle to the longitudinal axis of the heel.

Other objects will appear hereinafter throughout the specification.

The novel features of the invention may be best made clear from the following description and accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a plan view of the lower face of my improved heel;

Figure 2 is an edge elevation of the heel;

Figure 3 is a top plan view of my heel construction showing the arrangement of the nail receiving posts and the spaced ribs extending across the air well;

Figure 4 is a sectional View taken on the line 4-4 of Figure 3 and showing how the spaced ribs in the well extend at an angle of substantially 45 to the major axis of the heel body; and

Figure 5 is a sectional view taken on the line 5-5 of Figure 3.

Referring now to the drawing for a detailed description of my heel construction, 2 represents the heel body as a whole and 4 an air well in the upper face of the heel body. Mounted in recess 6 on the lower or tread face 8 is a wear plate 10 which may be formed of any suitable material, such as metal or plastic. As is well understood in the art, the plate 10 is arranged on the rear outer corner portion of the heel since this is normally the area of greatest wear. As is clear in Figures 4 and 5, the well 4 is divided into a plurality of channels 12 by the substantially equally spaced parallel ribs 14, and as clearly indicated in these figures, the ribs 14 are slanted toward the front edge of the heel when in its normal position on a shoe. Substantially equally spaced from the edges of the heel body are the post constructions 16 which surround washers (not shown) irnbedded in the heel body. These post constructions are integral with the heel body and have openings 18 which receive nail means for securing the heel to the shoe sole. As clearly indicated in Figures 4 and 5, the ribs 14 are relatively thin and have their lower and their end edges connected to the bottom and the side walls, respectively, of the well 4.

Referring now to Figures 1 and 3, it will be seen that the heel body as a whole has a substantially conventional shape in that it is slightly curved inwardly in its forward end 20, and curved outwardly on a much shorter radius at its rear extremity 22. These figures also clearly show that the side edges 24 of the heel body are slightly 2,955,365 Patented Oct. 11, 1960 curved outwardly and merge into the curve of lesser radius at the rear of the heel body to make it of substantially elliptical configuration at its rear portion. Viewed from the top of the heel body, it will be noted that the ribs 14 extend at an angle of substantially 45 to what may be termed the major axis of the heel, that is, a line extending longitudinally through the central portion of the heel.

As is well known, when a person walks normally, the act of walking is in a line which extends from the outside rear edge of the heel to the position of the big toe of. the wearer of the shoe on which the heel is mounted, or, in other words, in a straight line which crosses the major axis of the heel body at substantially the central portion of the body and at substantially a right angle to the length of the ribs. In the heel, as illustrated in Figure 3, this straight line would extend from a point between the two leftmost posts 16 at the top of this figure to a point between the post 16 at the lower right corner of the heel and the centrally arranged lower post 16. As is well known, this line is the line of greatest wear in the average shoe. It is logical, therefore, that if the comfort of walking is improved, it must be along this line. With this in mind, I have constructed the heel with ribs 14 extending across the well at an angle, as described above, and have found that in this construction the ribs 14 act as springs damped by the surrounding air which is confined in the well by the shoe attached thereabove. As the pressure is released from the heel, as when the foot or heel of the wearer is lifted, the ribs or springs snap back, improving the resiliency of the heel and giving it a softer feel. Since the ribs are angled and slanted forwardly, as described above, there will be no distortion or deflection of the impressed force such as would occur if the ribs were arranged approximately at right angles to the forward motion of the shoe instead of at approximately right angles to the actual forward rocking motion of the foot, or if they were vertically disposed.

The heel of this application is made of rubber or some similar material, and it will be understood that the term rubber, as used in this application, is intended to include any suitable material having the general properties of vulcanized rubber. Such material, for example, may include natural or synthetic rubber, or any plastic having similar properties.

The present invention will thus be seen to completely and effectively accomplish the objects enumerated hereinabove. It will be realized, however, that various changes and substitutions may be made to the specific embodiment disclosed herein for the purpose of illustrating the principles of this invention, without departing .air damping chambers when said plate is attached to a shoe, said ribs being connected to the sides and to the bottom of said well and extending diagonal to the longitudinal axis of said plate, and said chambers extending from one side of said well to the other.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,227,493 Runyan May 22, 1917 1,765,155 Heady June 17, 1930 1,951,975 Grifiith Mar. 20, 1934 

